Washington's welfare reform program, WorkFirst, became effective in November 1997. This program requires parents receiving welfare grants to work or engage in work-related activities. The Economic Services Administration (ESA) anticipated that the new work requirements would lead to an increase in the number of families using subsidies under the Working Connections Child Care program. The WorkFirst Division of ESA commissioned this study to determine: 1) whether the child cares market had sufficient capacity and flexibility to accommodate an increase in the number of subsidized children, and 2) whether clients were getting the help they needed to access child care.
